The PartDesign Workbench is intrinsically related to the Sketcher Workbench. The user normally creates a Sketch, then uses the PartDesign Pad tool to extrude it and create a basic solid, and then this solid is further modified.

The bodies created with PartDesign are often subject to the topological naming problem which causes internal features to be renamed when the parametric operations are modified. This problem can be minimized by following the best practices described in the feature editing page, and by taking advantage of datum objects as support for sketches and features.

Structure tools

These tools are in fact not part of the PartDesign Workbench. They belong to the Std Base system. They were developed in v0.17 with the intention that they would be useful to organize a model, and create assemblies; as such, they are very useful when working with bodies created with this workbench.

Part: adds a new Part container in the active document and makes it active.

Group: adds a Group container in the active document, which allows organizing the objects in the tree view.

Part Design Helper tools

Create body: creates a Body object in the active document and makes it active.

Create sketch: creates‎ a new sketch on a selected face or plane. If no face is selected while this tool is executed, the user is prompted to select a plane from the Tasks panel. The interface then switches to the Sketcher Workbench in sketch editing mode.

Thickness: creates a thick shell from the active body and opens selected face(s).

Boolean

Boolean operation: imports one or more Bodies or PartDesign Clones into the active body and applies a Boolean operation.

Extras

Some additional functionality found in the Part Design menu:

Migrate: migrates files created with older FreeCAD versions. If the file is pure PartDesign feature-based, migration should succeed. If the file contains mixed Part/Part Design/Draft objects, the conversion will most likely fail. introduced in version 0.17

Shaft design wizard: Generates a shaft from a table of values and allows to analyze forces and moments. The shaft is made with a revolved sketch that can be edited.

Involute gear: creates an involute gear profile that can be used by a Pad.

Contextual Menu tools

Set tip: redefines the tip, which is the feature exposed outside of the Body.